Improving my hair routine: hot oil treatment and heatless curls

Lately, I have been trying to improve and simplify my hair routine. I have been experimenting with a few things to make wash day more enjoyable and stress-free and so far, here is what I have done (or planning to do in the near future):

-          Hot oil treatment: Before, I would just put the olive and coconut oil mix on my scalp and hair. Now, I heat it up in my applicator bottle in hot water before application. To optimize my hot oil treatment experience, I added tea tree essential oil to my olive and coconut oil mix (both olive and coconut oil are organic, by the way). I started using the tea tree essential oil last December and I can now see the difference in the rate my hair is growing. The hot oil treatment also takes care of the dryness and helps in stretching my relaxer. So I don’t need to use a conditioner to prepoo on dry hair anymore.

-          Co-wash: now that my Wen cleansing conditioners are almost used up, I wanted to try co-washing with a regular conditioner. I did not like it at all because it did not cleanse my hair the way it should. I had put gel in my hair for a flat-twist out on the previous week and had done the hot oil treatment… all the oil and gel residues were still in my hair afterwards. Maybe it was not a good idea to co-wash with that much product build-up. In my next co-wash, after my hot oil treatment, I will cleanse with diluted white vinegar and see what happens.

-          Deep conditioning: my hair seems to shed less when I do a protein treatment, so I have been using ORS Replenishing Pak every other week, and the ORS Hair Mayonnaise every other week - I alternate between the two. The Herbal Essences The Sleeker The Butter conditioner and olive oil mix did not make any difference to my hair. And so far the ORS products are working. I am worried about protein overload and may have to go back to using ORS Replenishing Conditioner every other week to add back the moisture instead of the Replenishing Pak. I also may have to try out tea rinses to control my shedding.

-          Styling: I am trying to avoid heat as much as I can because I have noticed a growth spurt in my hair since I started doing flat-twists out every other week during this past month and a half. And I love this style because I have always been a straight-hair girl and found flat-twists out are so different and playful! I am still in search for more heatless styles for ear-length hair and I am excited about it.

I now use that oil mix for everything: nightly scalp massages, moisturizing and sealing my ends and conditioning my hair before I wash it. And doing the flat-twists out seems to be one of the best ways for me so far for low manipulation, because I do not have to touch my hair until the next wash day.

I will keep on doing these two things and add the tea rinse to my routine and contemplate the results. Until then... happy hair journey!

*Originally posted on March 1, 2015